With leading market positions across the world and the Middle East region, multinational company Henkel has reaffirmed its commitment to the KSA market, revealing robust expansion plans for the market. Currently, Henkel has established operations in KSA which include a manufacturing plant in Riyadh that produces the majority of our Laundry & Home Care products for this region and a strong talented local team. Erdem Kocak, President of Henkel GCC and Regional Head of Finance for IMEA, said the company is planning to heavily invest in its Riyadh plant in 2016 which will significantly increase Henkel's manufacturing capacity and production in the coming years. This investment will be aimed at boosting Henkel's output, automation systems and efficiency to create new opportunities for the business in KSA. In 2015, Henkel consolidated its distribution network for Laundry & Home Care products which has allowed the company to build a stronger distribution infrastructure in KSA and maximized potential through one key relationship in the Kingdom. "Making sure the correct team and talent is in place to support our expansion plans is key to developing Henkel's presence in KSA successfully, which means we are constantly on the look-out for new local talent to join our team and help support our increasing footprint in the market," said Erdem. Strengthening Henkel's operations in KSA directly bolsters the company's business in the wider GCC region. The Riyadh plant alone produces the majority of Henkel's Laundry & Home Care products for other GCC markets the company has a presence in. Looking for new business opportunities and strategic partnership agreements in KSA is always at the top of our agenda and will play a big role in our expansion plans for the year to come. "We also have a JV with our partners Ploibet in the Adhesives Technologies business unit with whom we operate a plant in the eastern province of KSA. The operation proved to be successful from the beginning and contributed generously to the growth of Adhesives in KSA and the GCC." Part of Henkel's promise to each market it operates in is to be a responsible corporate citizen, this means investing in the market's people, its community and its environment. Training the local workforce in KSA is vital to the country's economy and there is a very rich pool of talent in the market with in-depth local knowledge which Henkel is committed to help uphold. As part of this, Henkel has been supporting an innovation competition which targets young talent across KSA universities and it also has Saudi talent adding value to its operations in Saudi Arabia and the GCC region.
